Soul vs Soul 3, Reptile vs Lizardman
by 1st Lieutenant. Fae
Summary: Reptile, the last of the Saurian race and loyal servant to Shao Khan. Aeon Calcos, forsaken Spartan warrior cursed to bear the form, instincts and primitive mind of a humanoid lizard. Both in search of Soul Edge, but only one can walk away from this batte


Outworld, Shao Khan's temple.

Sitting in his throne, Shao Khan rested his head against his fist. Though it had been a few days, the emperor of Outworld was still feeling the effects of his battle with the golem on the other side of that portal. The portal that led to Earthrealm as it was in the 16th century.

The doors to the throne room opened and a man dressed in smooth green ninja robes approached the throne.

The man seemed normal enough, but once the light hit him his true self was revealed.

While he was human in shape and form, his skin was most certainly not. It was scaly, like a lizard's. His eyes were dark yellow with a single black slit in his eyes, just like a snake's, this 'man' was known simply as Reptile. One of Shao Khan's underlings, Reptile was a Saurian, the last one to be exact. His race was long since extinct, the Saurians were originally evolved dinosaurs native to Earthrealm, but when the elder god Shinnok went against the other elder gods in his quest to become master of the realms his fight against Raiden within Earthrealm sent ravaging waves of power throughout the realm, forcing the Saurians to flee to another realm, a realm known as Zaterra.

Once the Saurians began to rebuild their civilization in Zaterra another tragedy befell them. Shao Khan invaded their new realm and quickly forced it and its warriors into submission before Outworld and Zaterra merged into one realm.

After the conquest of Zaterra, the Saurians were quickly driven to extinction save for two warriors, Reptile and Khameleon. Both of them pledged themselves to Shao Khan and remained undyingly loyal to him over the past few centuries even after Khameleon's death Reptile remained loyal.

Even though Reptile has served under several others, including the sorcerer Shang Tsung, he had always remained loyal to Shao Khan above anyone else and had proven his loyalty countless times over.

Kneeling before Shao Khan the man spoke "How may I serve you master?" his voice was definitely not human, it was almost as if he was hissing and growling at the same time.

Lifting his head off his fist, the emperor sat straight as he regarded his faithful servant "Reptile" he spoke in a powerful voice "The portal that opened in Shang Tsung's soul tombs leads to Earthrealm as it was several centuries ago. There are many powerful warriors there and even though it injures my pride to admit it, there was one that could even stand up to me. Within Earthrealm during this time there is a weapon known as Soul Edge, I want you to go there and bring me as much information as you can about this weapon. And if you think you can I want you to kill as many as you can if they get in your way".

Reptile bowed his head "Of course master. I shall leave at once".

"One more thing Reptile" Shao Khan said to his servant before he tossed him a small glowing orb "If by any means you stumble across Soul Edge itself use this to inform my Shadow Priest they will head to your location to seize it for me".

Taking the orb and sliding it into his robes Reptile bowed his head again "As you wish master". Getting to his feet Reptile turned around and left the throne room heading right for the Soul Tombs.

Entering the Soul Tombs, Reptile approached the portal and gazed at it briefly. He could sense an immense power from within the portal, whatever was on the other side was powerful enough that its aura could be felt through the portal.

Steeling himself for whatever was on the other side Reptile stepped through the portal and into Earthrealm during the 16th century.

Entering a forest, Reptile immediately used his unique ability to blend with his surroundings becoming invisible to everything else before he sprinted off in the direction of the fiercesome power he sensed.

Earthrealm, Southeastern Europe. Turn of the 17th century.

In a small cave at the edge of a forest.

A snarling, hissing sound echoed from the mouth of the cave before a monster stepped out, it was a lizardman.

The lizardmen were a race of cursed humans created by the cult Fygul Cestemus. The creatures were split into two groups each with only one objective. The first group was to collect fragments of Soul Edge and the other group was used as loyal slaves.

This lizardman however was different; he was the first one to be created.

Originally he was known as Aeon Calcos. A Spartan warrior who was chosen along with Sophitia Alexandra and twenty two other warriors by the Greek god Hephaestus were ordered to search out and destroy the weapon known as Soul Edge.

Hephaestus thought that such a powerful weapon made by man would stain his reputation as the greatest blacksmith in existence and due to his arrogance over the matter he condemned a great warrior to a tragic fate.

Aeon Calcos accepted this quest, for his loyalty to his people and his gods was always his greatest trait, but while on his quest he was lost in a great desert. Thankfully a group of friendly travelers happened upon him not long after he collapsed and returned him to their village where they allowed him to recover.

Since he didn't have anything to give in return for their kindness, Aeon offered to teach them his ways of fighting in exchange for what they had done for him,

The villagers accepted his offer, but Aeon's teachings never started. It was on that day that the evil seed rained down across the land and just like many others Aeon was tainted by the seed's evil. Turning into a mindless killer Aeon slaughtered every villager around him and continued on his senseless killing spree until stories of him reached the ears of the leader of the cult Fygul Cestemus.

The grand priest and leader of the cult, Kunpaetku ordered Aeon captured so they could use him for an experiment which resulted in him being transformed into the first lizardman.

Lizardman's first order was to kidnap the son of Rock a great warrior known to many as the White Giant. Though Lizardman was successful in kidnapping Rock's son Bangoo, Rock eventually tracked him down while Lizardman was aiding the golem Astaroth in his search for Soul Edge.

After his defeat by the White Giant, Lizardman fled from the battle before the final blow could be struck and not long after Soul Edge had been shattered by the spirit sword.

The energy released from the spirit sword freed Aeon from his brainwashed state, but his form remained the same. After hiding himself from the world he wondered angrily to himself why Hephaestus did not help him in his time of need, why his god just abandoned him like he did.

With nothing, but resentment within his soul now, Aeon Calcos threw away the shield and sword made for him and began using a new shield and single handed war axe. He vowed that he would claim Soul Edge for himself and use it to destroy the god of Forge in the ultimate act of revenge.

Stepping out of the cave Lizardman's green and blue scaled gleamed in the small amount of sunlight that reached his through the treetops. Tilting his head upward he sniffed the air after sensing a powerful presence nearby. Catching the scent of whatever this presence was the former Spartan warrior hissed loudly before running into the forest to track down whatever was invading his current territory.

Swiftly and silently running through the forest, Aeon followed the scent of the intruder determined to track down whatever it was.

Arriving at a small clearing in the forest Aeon stopped and sniffed the air. Whatever he was following was close by.

Gripping the handle of his axe Aeon shifted his eyes back before spinning around and swinging his axe at an unseen entity.

Whatever he swung at he missed, but he could still smell it.

"What is this?" a hissing voice said from his side "Could you be a Saurian?"

Revealing himself from a tree's shadow, Reptile stepped forward cautiously as he sized up the lizardman standing before him. "No" he concluded "You're not a Saurian, but you were once human, somehow you've become like me".

Aeon tilted his head slightly, though he had been freed of his brainwashed state, most of his mind was gone. He could no longer think like a human nor could he understand speech anymore, all he knew was he hated a certain god, that he had to find Soul Edge and he knew how to fight.

Swiftly stepping forward Aeon swung his axe upward attempting to hit Reptile, but the scale covered warrior quickly stepped back before drawing his own weapon, a weapon native to his extinct race, the Kirehashi.

"I see" Reptile hissed "Your mind is no longer yours. You've become a slave to your instincts; very well I have no choice, but to end you".

Tossing a small smoke bomb on the ground Reptile used the distraction to turn invisible again before running around his opponent and attempting to attack him, but Aeon's sense of smell was strong enough to locate him.

Once Reptile swung his blade, Aeon blocked it with his shield before swiftly turning around and whipping his tail at Reptile's feet knocking him off balance.

Following up on his attack, Aeon stepped forward and crouched downed before launching his head upward using his own head to uppercut Reptile with enough force to throw him into the air.

As Reptile came back down, Aeon used his shield to catch his opponent before slamming him back on the ground before stepping on his chest and raising his axe for the final blow.

Knowing that he was in trouble, Reptile had no choice, he quickly reached up to the black bandages that wrapped around most of his face and pulled them down revealing his mouth. Quickly inhaling, Reptile spit his acidic saliva into Aeon's eyes, blinding and burning him causing enough of a distraction for Reptile to free himself.

Now back to his feet, Reptile quickly stepped back and summoned a force ball of transparent green energy that slowly hovered toward the blinded Lizardman before exploding on contact throwing him back.

Seeing his opening, Reptile turned invisible again and ran around to the side of his opponent before he threw his tongue out at him, wrapping it around Aeon's neck and reeling him in.

Struggling against Reptile's tongue, Aeon tried to free himself, but in vain as Reptile finally had him close enough to start biting at his head. Feeling Reptile's teeth tear into his scales and his acidic saliva adding to the damage, Aeon flailed in pain as he continued to try and break free of Reptile's hold. Trying several times to smack Reptile with his shield and axe, Aeon realized that his arms were too short to reach him while he was behind him, so he used his tail to trip him and free himself.

Already the damage had taken its toll on Aeon, sensing the danger of the fight he knew there was little chance of him winning, so he fled from the battle.

Following after his injured opponent, Reptile immediately ran after him and thanks to the damage he had already done to him he had little trouble catching up to him. Spitting his tongue back at him and wrapping it around Aeon's left ankle, Reptile tripped him and began reeling him in again.

Once he was tripped, Aeon turned around and brought his axe down on Reptile's tongue cutting himself free before he tried fleeing again.

Hissing in pain, Reptile withdrew his tongue and gave chase once again. "You will not escape me alive" he hissed at the fleeing lizardman before he stopped to fire a fast moving force ball.

The force ball quickly flew forward, missing a direct hit with its target, but causing a small enough explosion to stumble him enough for Reptile to catch him.

After stumbling to the side, Aeon stopped himself and waiting for Reptile to catch up to him before he spun around and feigned a strike with his axe, before he grabbed him and stepped onto Reptile's shoulders before rapidly stepping on his opponent's shoulder blades and finishing the attack by jumping behind him and using his tail to sweep his legs.

Reptile fell to the ground and Lizardman took his chance to finish it by attempting to cut Reptile's head off, but Reptile rolled to the side and became invisible again before taking several steps away from his enemy.

Aeon attempted to catch Reptile's scent, but to no luck. Reptile's acidic saliva must've burned the inside of his snout as well as his eyes. Forced to rely on his instinct and reflexes now, Aeon waited for Reptile's next move.

Hearing something crunch against the leaves to his side, Aeon quickly turned just as Reptile's head appeared before him and spat another ball of acidic saliva at him.

Ducking to the side to evade the acid spit, Aeon quickly ran over to Reptile to attack, but he slipped away again before attacking him from behind.

Sliding by Lizardman and sweeping his feet, Reptile revealed himself and brought his leg down on Lizardman's chest before forming another force ball and firing it at him at close range damaging both of them.

The close range force ball kicked up a lot of dirt and dust forcing Reptile to back away until it settled also allowing Aeon to catch what little breath he had left.

After the dust settled, Reptile was surprised to see Aeon gone. There was no way his attack did that much damage so he must've fled again, but he never saw him leave.

"A coward to the end it seems" Reptile hissed before he began looking for the first Lizardman.

Spotting Lizardman's footprints in the soft dirt, Reptile kneeled down for a closer look to see which direction he went, but it was a trap. Aeon surprised Reptile from behind kicking him to the ground and jumping onto his back before wailing on him with a flurry of strikes from both his axe handle and shield.

After one last strike from both his shield and axe, Aeon jumped off Reptile and dropped down to all four waiting for his opponent to return to his feet, as a killer intent glared in his eyes.

Reptile slowly pushed himself back to his feet, hissing and growling in pain. Once Reptile was back up and turned around, Lizardman took his opening and swiftly crawled over to Reptile before he launched him into the air before he jumped up and grabbed his leg and threw him back to the ground.

After Reptile hit the ground, Aeon closed in for the kill, but Reptile was prepared for him focusing his Saurian magic into a torso sized force ball and detonating it at close range against Lizardman.

The explosion sent Reptile flying back, but Aeon used his shield to protect him against the bulk of the impact, but the force still sent him stumbling back a few feet.

Jumping back to his feet Reptile turned invisible and rushed around to his enemy's side before dropping his camouflage and driving his clawed hand into Lizardman's stomach.

Aeon hissed in pain as he hunched over just as Reptile viciously drew his hand out of his gut and uppercut him back. As Aeon stumbled back, Reptile jumped onto his chest and shoulders forcing him to the ground as he pried his mouth open and began drooling his acidic saliva.

Sensing his end, Aeon desperately dropped his axe and grabbed Reptile's arm and pushed it toward his mouth as he slammed his shield against his face while biting into his arm.

Reptile growled in pain as he ripped his forearm from Lizardman's mouth and backed up before being tripped by his enemy's tail.

Immediately crawling to his feet, Lizardman retrieved his axe and waited for Reptile to get up before he used the broadside of his axe and slammed it against Reptile's neck to stun him.

Holding both his axe and shield next to his face Lizardman hissed angrily before he launched his final attack.

Quickly making a single step toward Reptile, Aeon used his shoulder to uppercut him before he threw himself into a spinning motion with the blade and edge of his shield aimed outward and began rolling against Reptile, tearing across him before he kicked off his chest and into the air before coming back down on him in a drilling motion, driving him into the ground to top off his critical finish.

Jumping off his motionless opponent, Aeon backed away and watched Reptile's body for a few seconds before holding his axe above his head and hissing a victory cry while pumping his shield arm in and out.

Seeing Reptile's fingers curl up, Aeon didn't take any chances and wanted to make sure that his opponent wouldn't get back up. He tightly gripped the handle of his axe before he brought it back down on Reptile's neck, taking his head off and ending any chance he had of surviving his injuries.

Without any doubts that he was now the victor, Aeon limped away from the battle as the victor, but the scars of his fight would always remind him of the dangerous opponent he just defeated.

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><p><strong>AN.** And that's the third battle of the Soul vs. Soul series. I hope you're enjoying it so far.

The next battle will be Taki vs. Noob-Saibot.


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